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Libya to Deport Detained Christians

Thu, March 7, 2013

Screenshot from a video of the Coptic Christian workers from Egypt who were detained in Libya.Reports coming out of Libya indicate that nearly 100 Egyptian Christians Copts living and working in Benghazi were detained by Libyan Islamists, thrown into jail and tortured.

The Copts were arrested after a group of Salafist Muslims attacked their church and accused them of proselytizing. The Salafis alleged that they had Christian icons on their stalls in the marketplace.



The Copts were eventually freed and now await deportation. Family members in Egypt revealed the abuse they were subjected to while in captivity. One detainee, who wished to remain anonymous, told Ahram Online that the captors shaved their heads and used acid to burn off the crosses traditionally tattooed on the Christians’ wrists.

Fardoos Salib, the mother of Atif Kamel, one of the arrested, told Egyptian newspaper al-Watan, "When the residents of the village told me that he was imprisoned, I embraced his sons and told them they would not see their father again."

Kamel told his family that he was subjected to electric shocks and forced to clean toilets, as his jailers assaulted him and mocked his religion. Kamel has a wife and two children in Egypt, but went to work in a Benghazi vegetable market in order to provide for them.

Coptic Bishop Pachomios told reporters that, "I am following up on the issue with church authorities in Cairo and the 

Egyptian foreign affairs ministry. This is a very serious incident, in which Egyptian citizens were arrested on the mere suspicion [of proselytizing] and tortured while in detention."

The bishop confirmed that the Egyptians in question had worked in Libya, adding that "it doesn't make sense that as many as 100 Egyptian Copts had decided to engage in proselytizing activities in another country."

Naguib Gabriel, head of the Cairo-based Egyptian Union for Human Rights, expressed his disappointment over the incident. He, too, voiced doubt that the Egyptians in question had been proselytizing in Libya, saying, "Even if this were proven to be the case, they should not have been detained because of it."

According to human rights watchers, oppression among Christians living in Libya is on the rise. Last month an Egyptian, a South African, a South Korean and a Swede with a U.S. passport were arrested on charges of distributing Bibles and other religious material. 

The arrests are the latest in a series of recent incidents in Libya targeting Christians. 

In December, two Egyptian Christians were killed and two injured when suspected Islamic extremists threw a homemade bomb at a Coptic Orthodox church in western Libya.

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